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>> Monday, August 31, 2009

In anticipation of some footage of the 'before unknown' CD-i games made by Coktel Vision, CD-i member Calypso dug up some covers of the ADI CD-i package. Not very attractive to collect in my opinion, but apparently they hold more secrets than ever known before.
According to these, who would say you can actually play games on them? And even more: Good old classics like Gobliiins?

A few weeks back we informed you that The Black Moon Project was going to be transferred to our own servers because our free host Gamespy stopped the support unfortunately. Thankfully Devin has managed to get the website running at www.blackmoonproject.co.uk now without the advertising banners! Another benefit is the increasing speed: Webpages will load a lot faster here as they did on Gamespy. I feel this is a great improvement for us and I hope the start of more updates (because, ahem, that was the first update of 2009)

>> Tuesday, August 25, 2009

It's not a game-killing botch like Axis & Allies, which squandered great source material on a clumsy game, but the CD-i adaptation of "Lemmings" has a few flaws which will frustrate many players. That's a pity, since "Lemmings" is arguably the best computer puzzle game ever devised, and CD-i puzzlers deserve better. The premise is equal parts adorable and sick. A door in the sky opens and the lemmings -- little green-haired guys in blue cloaks -- fall out, hit the ground and start walking. Unless they hit something they can't climb, they'll continue right into the ocean, lava, lemming-smooshing traps, etc. If they do hit something, they turn around and walk the other way, probably into more danger.

It's your job to save a certain percentage of the stupid little guys, by assigning skills to members of the horde. The tools at your disposal are indicated at the bottom of the screen, along with the number of times you can use them. For example, if the lemmings are heading towards a pit, you can choose the staircase-building tool and pick the lead lemming; he'll start building a 12-step staircase the other lemmings can safely climb over. You also get three varieties of digging: horizontal, down, and diagonally down. The lemming will continue digging until he gets into the clear, hits steel, or dies. To control the flow of lemmings, you can also use a "blocker", who turns around any lemmings who run into him. And an "explosion" tool tells a lemming to explode, following a five-second countdown. Two skills stay with lemmings as long as they're alive: climbing and parachuting. The latter skill allows lemmings to fall from heights that would otherwise kill them. A lemming with both of these skills is called an "athlete", and is particularly useful to send out in advance of the horde to dig tunnels, build bridges, etc.
The playfields can be several screens wide, meaning you need to be careful to know what's happening in several places at once. You scroll by pressing your cursor against the edge of the screen, holding button-two to scroll faster. A tiny map at the bottom right shows the entire level, with a box indicating what's on the main screen. Clicking on this map or dragging the box around provides a way to quickly change your view. What's always been ingenious about Lemmings is the ways in which the level designs challenge your creativity. Early levels develop your resource management skills, teach you to send out "scout" lemmings to prepare tunnels and bridges for the horde, etc. But later levels challenge you to think about your options in non-intuitive ways -- the digging and staircase tools become a way to turn around a lemming, the bomb becomes an excavation tool, staircases built the wrong direction become ways to catch falling lemmings. Lemmings has been a classic on every platform for which it's been released -- which seems like every computer and video-game system on the market since the early 90's. That's part of the problem for the CD-i version. It compares unfavorably with other versions, even those developed for less powerful hardware. The first thing I noticed, having played the Macintosh and Atari Lynx versions, is that the lemmings themselves are tiny on the CD-i screen. This makes the action hard to see and difficult to control at times, since it's nearly impossible to pick out a specific lemming unless he's in the clear. If anything, the lemmings should have been larger on the CD-i. Computer players sit right in front of their screen, making small objects perfectly visible, while video-gamers often sit halfway across the room. Not for nothing do CD-i controllers have 12-foot cords. Also, the control problem is exacerbated by what appears to be a slight delay in response to pressing the button. I've noticed about a quarter- to half-second delay. The practical upshot is that if you've selected the digging tool and you're waiting for a lemming to reach a wall you want to tunnel through, you'll hit the button as he reaches the wall... and then be shocked as he turns around and then starts digging the wrong way! The CD-i version retains the charming music of other versions of Lemmings, and it's got a much more sophisticated timbre and higher sound-quality on the CD-i. In fact, it sounds like the music is being played back from a studio recording of some sort, rather than clinked out in bits and boops by a sound chip. On the other hand, since that limits the ability to switch back and forth between verse, bridge, and chorus, the shorter musical clips get repetitive when played through a dozen times on one level. With 120 levels, this isn't a game you'll finish quickly. At the end of each level, you're given a 10-letter code that can be entered to continue the game later at the highest level you've reached. These codes are the same as for the PC and other home versions. I really don't like these systems, despite their popularity in games with dozens of levels. First off, the type-style used in every version of Lemmings isn't easy to read -- you may botch a password by confusing the nearly-identical D, O, and Q characters. And 10 letters for 120 levels is overkill -- there are 141,167,095,653,380 possible combinations. "Chip's Challenge" on the Lynx and PC only needed four letters for 148 levels. Heck, I've seen adventure games that save your location, inventory, and game status with 10 characters, not just a level number. But beyond that, the CD-i could have used the player's storage to save games, completely eliminating the annoying task of writing down passwords for every level. The space consumption would be trivial, assuming one byte for the level number, 10 bytes for the player's name. I think the only advantage of the password system is that it allows players to get codes from friends, magazines, or the internet to cheat and skip levels they haven't been able to beat -- hardly an advantage.

So, should you get "Lemmings" for your CD-i? That depends. If you've played through the 120 levels on another system, the answer is no -- there's nothing more to see here other than a charming intoductory animation. If you've played through part of the game on another system, you're probably better off avoiding the frustrations of this disc and going back to your computer, video-game, or portable. But if you haven't played it, and like many other CD-i owners you're an inveterate puzzler, and you've already finished Merlin's Apprentice... then I think CD-i Lemmings runs neck-and-neck with Dimo's Quest as your action/puzzle game of choice. Dimo has more accurate controls, and better graphics and music... but like Lemmings it has tiny characters, and Dimo's level designs are nowhere near as clever.

Besides, what other game has on-screen characters who yell "oh no", grab their heads, and burst into lots of colorful little bits? Flaws aside, Lemmings remains a unique combination of wits, cutes, and sick humor.
Credits: Chris Adamson

Again in all of these cases, the CD-i was very secondary at best. The only way to get people to do some CD-i titles was to agree to a lead CD-ROM sku. CD-i for a lot of developers was an after thought - in fact a real burden that was contractual. [...] Beam did the work on the Dame was Loaded. The Dame was an attempt to use cheaper Australian labor and acting, to get away from guild and union issues here in the US, because so much of it was of a filmic nature - but in the end, there were issues with the Australian accents, not mimicking the US accent of that era, cost overuns, etc. and testing. But by that time, the US market for CD-i was stagnant. I can imagine that even if some titles were finished, the US team might have said why bother?

I know this problem was experiencing some issues on the milestones and while there was a good completed demo - it was truly far from a solid product release. Again, the team of people who are CD-i devotees probably think the game is rock solid, but its not. The same could be said for Discworld, which I really can't recall very much on. Their complaints about product test were warranted as the English testing was not the same as the US operation which at its prime was first class operation where the typical employee was a UCLA / USC university student earning $10 an hour. But we didn't hire just any student, they had to be good and if anything they were thorough to the chagrin of some developers who couldn't believe the bugs that they found.

But I know it wasn't every ready for release. [...] Philips viewed some of these titles that they invested in - as more of a liability than an opportunity - if they could not be fixed to be a rock solid consumer product holding up to the scrutiny of the press or to the gamer who would not be happy with crash bugs (typically running out of memory issues).[...]

Consider CD-i Emulator project in silent mode for the next few years. It will never be dead as it is just a hobby project, but it has taken several years before the first version was released to public as well. Since then, no updates has been released, although behind the scenes the emulator has shown some work. It's unknown if and when an update will be released. "As long as it isn't dead it should be considered alive, I think. But "silent mode" is a good description of the current state. When/if I get more free time, I will resume regular work on it."

>> Tuesday, August 4, 2009

It seems like Coktel Vision used the ADI CD-i school range to include some CD-i demos of games like Inca and Gobliiins. Coktel released four volumes on CD-i, who knows other games will show up like Eco Quest I, Eco Quest II, Lost In Time, Inca II?
It's not the first time french CD-i titles hold secret CD-i games. A few years back Omegalfa discovered 'Un Indien dans la Ville - Le Jeu' inside the Video CD version of this movie on CD-i. It seems like before these titles weren't popular by collectors to pick up, but we didn't know what we were missing! I'm sure Gobliiins on CD-i would have sold on CD-i very well as games were notorious trail blazers when it came to CD-i wares. Assuming the full game of Gobliiins is playable then it's difficult to understand why Coktel Vision didn't do an English translation and release it as a stand alone!

Alan is playing Gobliiins on CD-i right now: "Once you've obtained enough points (studying) all levels of Gobliins will be playable. I think there are around 9 to unlock. The sound effects are good (one of them is a magician, the other can use objects and the 3rd seems to punch things)." The game engine for Gobliiins remained the same from the original right through to the third installment, also includes INCA II. So it might not have been that difficult to port over the other games considering we have the original Gobliiins in playable form on this ADI CM2 CD-i disc. So maybe, just maybe other ADI wares contain the other games! The screenshots you find here are taken from the Amiga version to give an impression for you who don't know Gobliiins!
Thanks to Alan for this news!

>> Monday, August 3, 2009

Visually stunning adventure game from Cryo, the same studio who was supposed to bring out Dead End on cd-i. The MPEG coding has been done 100% by the team behind ADS: those are the same people behind Atlantis: The Last Resort! The Lost Eden, an alternative prehistoric past where man and dinosaur coexist. You are the start in this beautifully rendered first-person-perspective adventure. You must travel four continents and meet more than twelve different species of dinosaur each with its own destinct personallity. It's your goal to restore the peace that once allowed man and beast to live harmoniously. You must find the secrets to travelling the lands of Eden, engaging the help of the dinosaurs and to rebuilding lost citadels. With full speech throughout and an original music score, The Lost Eden features unmatched graphic animation with fully rendered three dimensional characters and scenery.

Now HalfBlindGamer created a new CD-i video review of Lost Eden with lots of video material of this game.

The most important find this year to date for CD-i. CD-i member Alan bought ADI CM2 (Accompanement scolaire) the other day, which is a massive title designed to help children study. However, hidden in there are 3 games.... a segment of Inca, game similiar to BMP Puzzle and the main game called ''Gobliiins''. You take control of 3 of these creatures and it's an adventure type game. Each gobliiin has different powers and you have to choose which one to use at the right time... The great thing about this disc is that only the first part of Gobliiins and the puzzle game are accesible at first - you have to ''unlock'' the other levels by doing well at your studies. Can't think of any other cd-i where you have to unlock other levels. Alan will attempt to do screenshots in the near future, I'm looking forward to it! The most important find this year to date for CD-i. One question, from what you've seen, once all the boring educational stuff had been completed do you believe Gobliiins will be fully playable and absolutely seperate from the educational side of the disc?
Updated will follow here when it is available. Thanks to Alan for the news!

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